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Monday, August 25, 2008

Sources for Album/CD versions of previous reviews

As a public service of this blog and also due to the fact that I have written about a few albums that may or may not be easy to find at yon, friendly record or CD shop, here are a few places to purchase or listen to those tracks:

If these folks do not have any of the available, no one will. With regard to the two covers of 'Novella', this has to do with the fact that Renaissance's label at the time, Sire was in the process of being sold from ABC to Warner/Elektra/Asylum and a reissue was done after the switch. There is no difference in the recording by the way.

A few other notes:

- 'De Capo' - features a song which on disc 2 called 'Writers Wronged' . This song which was from the 'Time-Line' sessions is also on 'Songs From Renaissance Days', a compilation of material which did not make it onto any of the previous releases or were songs that were being used to possibly get another contract with a new company. An absolutely amazing piece with a flute solo which can remind one of Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues.

- 'Tales of 1001 Nights, Volumes 1 and 2' - Selected material from the vaults of Sire/Warner Brothers, with songs that were on the Sovereign [yes that is fancy for Sire] label, but are in their live versions here: 'Prologue', 'Can You Understand', 'Carpet of the Sun' and 'Ashes are Burning' from the first live album 'Live at Carnegie Hall' [the orchestral parts are done by the New York Philharmonic] as well as their later material from 'Novella', 'A Song For All Seasons' and the last on that label 'Azure d' Or'. Closing out with another from the Carnegie sessions....'Ashes are Burning'. This also has an amazing set of liner notes written by a good friend of the band [not to forget someone who is infinitely more knowledgeable about Renaissance than I], David Samuel Barr.

- 'Ocean Gypsy', 'The Other Woman', 'Trip to the Fair' - These were done by Mickey Dunford with under the aegis of 'Mickey Dunford's Renaissance' with Stephanie Adlington doing the vocals. On the first in the list, these are redone Ren classics with a couple new songs thrown in, including a version of 'At The Harbor' that with an orchestra is just as amazing as the original. Plus there is a reinterpretation of 'Trip to the Fair' with a pretty cool sax [or is that core anglais?] solo. 'The Other Woman' is material which features love songs and one could see the classic Ren playing these in this era. [The title track. 'Deja Vu' and 'Somewhere West of Here' are worth noting]. 'Trip to the Fair is a compliation of the first two, but oddly enough missing 'Trip to the Fair'.

I would be remiss at this point if I did not mention Annie Haslam's solo work here:

And a confession at this point: many years ago, I used to use the opening track from the second side of Annies first solo album 'Annie in Wonderland' as the opener for an old college radio show that I hosted [I am not that old folks!!]. The tune is called 'Rockalise' which is rock, classical...and even sounds like an opera aria, all at the same time.

This is the complete version of what was mentioned in this space a few posts back. As was said before, it is worth listening to because even without an orchestra backing them, they can still rock out and be just as cool:)

If you had downloaded this from other means, it may not have the extra tracks which are listed at this page. Even with or without the extra tracks, this is a fanstastic album from one of the longest, existing bands of the genre.

Stay tuned folks because there will be more reviews of material in future posts!!!

About Me

Yours truly is a geekette from the Pacific Northwest. Aside from that and writing/creating this blog...yours truly digs classical and classic rock, progressive and be-bop era jazz, sports and spending time with her two cats - Rachel and Marissa